BIRMINGHAM, AL (September 21, 2016) -- Youth is the name of the game for the 2016 Team California's three-man USGA Men's State Team Championship team. All three players, including Northern California's Thomas Hutchinson, heading to the Country Club of Birmingham for next weeks event are just 17-years of age.

Hutchinson, the the 2015-2016 Junior Tour of Northern California Player of the Year, has committed to UC Davis for the fall of 2017 and this past July he won the prestigious Northern California Junior Boys' Title. With the victory Hutchinson, of San Jose, CA, joined a list of past winners that includes Ken Venturi (1949), Johnny Miiler (1963) and Bobby Clampett (1976).

Fellow 17-year-olds Ashwin Arasu (San Diego, CA) who played in the 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and 2017 Texas A&M commit Dan Erickson (Wittier, CA) will also be making the trip to Alabama. In 2015 Erickson became the youngest non-collegian player to win the Southern California Match Play title when he won as a 16-year-old.

The trio will compete for non-playing captain Keenan Barber.

ABOUT THE USGA Men's State Team

The USGA State Team Championships grew out
of the Association's Centennial Celebration in
1995, and have been held on an every-other-
year basis since. 52 men’s teams (including
teams from Puerto Rico and the District of
Columbia) compete for the trophy named in
honor of former USGA President James Hand.
Fifty women’s teams compete for the trophy
named for past USGA President Judy Bell.

State golf associations select three of their top
non-college amateurs to represent them in this
biennial team championship. The top two scores
of the three players count toward the team total
for each of the three days.